Before and after pictures of Scandinavian Bonsai Retreat 2019:
In our seminars the major point is to teach people. While it is desirable that they end up with a good result it is more important that they learn. If they do all the preparation according to our advice and we then form the final tree they have missed the most important part of bonsai styling - this is DECISION MAKING. All the time one has to make decision. In the end after a succession of many decisional the final product is there. The techniques are important but the decisions make all the difference.
How does one learn how to make decisions? Well, by making decisions, seeing the result and make decisions again. By practising decision making one learns to make good ones. In many bonsai schools folks only learn the technique but not what is really important - and that is to make the right decisions.
This is important to understand when looking at the before and after pictures. The trees were tweaked by Jennifer Price, Thomas Haering and WP a bit. We try to touch the student's tree as little as possible. The participants truly worked hard of doing their own share. In the end it is THEIR tree and they have don much more than techniques on them.
The
Scandinavian Bonsai Retreats are organized by Thor Holvila from Sweden.
These retreats are full weekends and everything is around bonsai. The
locations are somewhere in Sweden. There are 20 or more participants
from many countries. - retreat language is English. These events started
with harry Harrington as teacher and by now have a tradition and are
very popular. Harry did a great job.
In
order to get onto the list of participants you have to be quick after
the announcement. In spring of this year Harry led a weekend in the
south of Sweden. Last weekend there was a second event in Älvdalen in
the center of Sweden, where the true wilderness begins. Moose are
common, we hear of bears and other beasts. It is like one imagines
Alaska including living in fishermen's block houses for the weekend.
I
was honored to be asked to lead this one and brought Jennifer Price
from Chicago and Thomas Haering from Munich with me. Everybody had a
great time. See some glimpses of the event.
